Amongst other things, she recommends you settle on a certain topic, name your event, and hold a round of introductions. Being friendly and curious is equally important to encourage diversity and controversial points of view in discussions.

So, if you can't make it to our meeting in Berlin, why not host your own bloggers' get-together in your region? Free online services like Doodle offer coordinating tools that make finding a date and time at everyone's convenience easy as pie. And any small party is better than no party, right?

* Wondering what a salon might be? Wikipedia has the answer either in English or German.

Oct 26, 2010

Egyptian blogger Eman Hashim tears apart a TV series called The Good Wife, starring Julianna Margulies, in an article asking What's so good about this “Good Wife”? Eman touches upon issues like single partenting and societal expectations of female behaviour, and would surely appreciate your comments.

As managers who come from diverse backgrounds are still under-represented in German industry, ESMT aims to support talented young people with a migrant background on their way to leadership positions.

Applicants have to meet certain requirements, write an essay demonstrating that they have approached the idea of diversity in their career or private lives, and submit an online application before 15 November 2010.

Oct 22, 2010

Elaine, a friend of mine working in American politics, alerted me to a New York Times article entitled "D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution". In it, Nicholas D. Kristof, co-author of the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide introduces women of all ages, who have accomplished extraordinary achievements for communities all around the world - often making immense personal sacrifices. One of the women portrayed is Maggie Doyne, 23, who extended her gap year indefinitely and - instead of going to college - founded her own school and orphanage for Nepalese children. On Maggies blog, I found the video of a presentation she gave, letting us in on her motivation, progress, and aspirations. Other projects portrayed in the article include Elisabeth Scharpf's initiative to provide sanitary pads to women as to curb absenteeism at work or school during menstrual periods (Sustainable Health Enterprises or SHE Innovates Blog), or Lisa Shannon, who started Run for Congo Women, an NGO raising money for women suffering from war and rape in eastern Congo.

Oct 20, 2010

Fr. Jona&son wrote an interesting poston a new German clothes swapping platform called "Kleiderkreisel". It was modelled after a similar Lithuanian concept, and registration and use of the service are free. Very interesting!

Oct 19, 2010

A while back, I stumbled upon Kiersten and Twaggies on Twitter. The idea is simple, but clever: Twaggies illustrates Tweets.

Follow the jump below to find out which other blogs Kiersten maintains, what kind of topics get covered on Twaggies, and why focusing on the negative aspects of blogging might just leave you... dead or something.

Oct 17, 2010

In Queensland, as in other Australian states and territories, women and doctors can be tried under 19th century criminal codes and face years of imprisonment for choosing an abortion. These laws have already seen women seeking abortions after sexual assault turned away from public hospitals, and left doctors fearing imprisonment for providing advice and treatment. Abortion has to be dealt with in the health code, not the criminal code!

Support the Australian National Petition for Choice in their efforts to legalize abortion by signing their online petition today. (Via Mädchenblog)

Oct 15, 2010

I first heard of her in the summer of 2008, when I was interning with CNN International in London. Producer Abi Moore (one of the minds behind the PinkStinks campaign) and director Georgi Banks-Davies had the idea of featuring Alexandra on Principal Voices, a show portraying leading experts in climate change and energy.

Alexandra runs both her own blog Blue Legacy and Twitter account, where she informs about critical water issues. Her goal is to inspire people to take action in meaningful ways: By saving water, by raising awareness, and by participating in regional efforts to preserve local watersheds.

Alexandra herself is setting a good example: Currently, she and her team are on a 14,500-mile journey across North America to investigate water issues “in the backyard” of one of the world’s leading economies. Check out her photo collection to learn more about that most recent trip.

Oct 14, 2010

By way of exception, I'm introducing to you a second fashion-arts-culture blog in ten days: political scientist Julia Stelzner's. Like Anna of Kalinka², Julia is writing on design-related issues for a living: Working as a copywriter during daytime, Julia is spending her evenings charging her blog with clothes and culinary delights. Sounds good to you?

Oct 12, 2010

And, if so, would it matter? Andrew Marr of the BBC obviously got something wrong when he said that "a lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting." He went on about how "the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night." If, like me, you disagree, why don't you send an e-mail to his office, setting the record straight? Mine read:

Dear Mr. Marr,

I think you got something wrong when you said many bloggers were "socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting". In fact, there are lots of female bloggers, too, and quite a few of us are pretty. Please see for yourself:

Oct 11, 2010

Last Saturday, the gorgeous Lili Masuhr of Radio Fritz asked me a couple of questions regarding the Young Media Summit for a radio show called "Trackback". Like the title suggests, it deals with all things web-related. My interview is about seven minutes long and in German - hope you guys will like it!

Oct 8, 2010

Apparently, October is breast cancer awareness month. I had no idea such a thing existed until I received a message asking me to announce in my Facebook status where I like [to put] my purse when I get home. The word purse was to be replaced with the word it. Already, statuses like "I like it on the kitchen table" or "I like it behind my door" were popping up everywhere.

Said message was mailed out to women only. It explained how the initiative was modelled after similar previous campaigns. Last year's task, for example, asked female users to give away the colour of their underwear in the name of breast cancer - in order to make "men wonder for days what is with the colors and make it to the news"...

Oct 6, 2010

On 7 October 2010, Ava's Green Salon, a blog-based Berlin-American initiative for sustainability, will open its doors for the first time. American political scientist Steven Hill and Hans-Josef Fell, energy spokesperson of the German green party, will kick off a series of events bringing together experts, activists, and artists to discuss their ideas. Topic of the launch night is "Europe Energized?". Follow the jump below for a brief interview with Isabel Cole, the mastermind behind the project.

Very much to my surprise, I was asked to sit on the podium during the presentation of our Young Media Summit 2010 results at Cairo University yesterday afternoon. Wow.

The question directed at me specifically was whether social media like Facebook or Twitter could contribute to intercultural dialogue. In groups, we had worked on variations of the topic in the morning, and had come to the following conclusions*:

Oct 2, 2010

After a pleasingly uneventful flight from Berlin to Cairo, Tessa, Julia, Markus and I safely landed in Egypt last night. Not knowing, of course, that thanks to local traffic and belated Stefan and Hardy, it would take us another three hours to get to our hotel. But we did, and my decision to go to bed straight away proved dead right - sitting in the conference room all day today, getting to know each other while tweeting, blogging, debating and listening to presenters and translators was pretty exhausting. And while now the others are swimming some rounds in one of Cairo's largest swimming pools, I am in my hotel room, typing this...

Oct 1, 2010

I was lucky enough to have been invited as a participant in the first ever Young Media Summit, which will take place in Cairo, Egypt, from 2 - 4 October 2010. Over three days, fellow bloggers and myself will debate on "Orient and Occident on the World Wide Web": Is blogging the same in Germany and the Arab world? Can bloggers contribute to intercultural exchange? With the help of interpreters, we are hoping to find valuable answers to these and other questions. On Monday, we will present and discuss our findings during a public event at Cairo University. I will try and post regular updates from the conference until then. For starters, you might also want to read the German introductory posts about our trip by my colleagues Teresaof Flannel Apparel and Stefan of Ruhrbarone.

The Young Media Summit is organized by Deutsche Welle’s DW-Akademie and the Deutschland-Zentrum Kairo, and is being funded by the German Foreign Office. It is meant to be the first in a series of annual summits held to facilitate exchange and networking among young media professionals from the Arab world and Germany.

Disclaimer

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States . Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.